Summer Bucket List Party 2013

My childhood summers hold some of my best memories and those days were magical to me. I would go back and relive anyone of them. To this day, I love, love summer. I spent most of my summers with my grandparents in upstate New York along the Hudson River. My days were never rushed and there was plenty of time for boredom, exploring, and play, yet somehow they were also packed with iconic summer activities that just seemed to spontaneously happen. I helped my grandfather garden and he took me fishing, my grandmother spent hours watching me swim in the pool and made the best picnic dinners on the patio ever. My aunt and uncle would appear and off we went to the county fair. I want those type of days for my kids.

For the past few years we have been making a summer bucket list. We make list of things we want to do before summer kicks the bucket, cut them into individual strips and put them in a sand bucket. I color code them for how much time each activity will take (full day, half day, 4 hours or less) and the kids take turns pulling a slip each morning, depending on our schedule, and that's how we plan our day. I try to have all our supplies before summer starts so that we can be spontaneous, unless part of the fun is getting the supplies. This isn't meant to always keep the kids occupied, but to have an intentional summer. We won't start our list until all the kids are out of school (first week in June).

This is our 2013 Summer Bucket List

...for now...they add activities daily

Full Day Summer Bucket List Activitiesfishing in the mountainsgo on a reptile tour, visit a serpentarium (thanks Little J)make homemade yogurtset up our ant farm and learn more about antsgo to an aquariumvisit ethnic grocery stores or delis, bring home samples and cookvisit a museumexplore a nearby cityvisit a potter's studio and watch them work, play with clay at homego to the beach

Half Day Summer Bucket List Activitiesmini golftie dye t-shirts and shoelacesplay at a sprinkler parkgo horseback riding at a farmride our bikes to the park for a picnicmake a birdhouse from our gourds (we planted them this spring)go rock wall climbinggo for high teamake superhero capesmake Italian icestake Daddy out to lunch for sushigo for a hikego to a planetarium showmake madeleinesLess than 4 Hour Summer Bucket List Activitiesmake pet shells (like pet rocks)breakfast picnicmake bottle cap necklacesmake Dole whipsmake ocean dioramasround up some friends and play kickballmake a snail homegrow chia petsmake pizzas on the grillread mom and dad's old comic booksmake robot collagesmake fresh lemonade or limeademake bubble wands and homemade bubble solution, playhave a paper airplane contestmake a big chocolate cake from scratchset up a carnivorous plant terrariumtake a butterfly walk and try to identify as many possibleAll Summer Long or planned Activities

Hi Sheena,Thanks! I'm a southern girl love my sweet tea too! I'm not an expert, but I believe high tea originated in England. It's basically hot tea served with fruits, fancy little sandwiches, scones, and other sweet desserts. It's meant to be a little formal. However, there are a couple of little tea places here where we live that do a high tea for children a couple of times a month. It's still as fun and cute, but scaled down so a child would enjoy the time.

Thanks for including our shell craft from last year in your bucket list. That just made my day.:)Because of your bucket list, I started to write down ours, but I need to think a little more...I will link it asap. Thanks again for sharing your list. Typing, I am getting really excited about summer and all the wonderful thing we will do.

Hi! I'm Kelly and my wonderful husband of 14 years and I have a 11 year old boy and boy/girl 7 year old twins. For this blog's purposes Dr. Wonderful is my husband, Little J is our 11 year old son, Juiciness is our 7 year old son, and his twin sister is Sassyfras- who has gone above and beyond to earn her nickname. I hope you will enjoy reading about our days.

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